Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Debut Contemporary is an exciting new initiative launched by the husband and wife duo Samir Ceric and Zoe Knight (who are also responsible for Wolf and Badger, Salon Contemporary and First Wednesdays).

The programme is a unique exhibiting and mentoring opportunity. Designed to launch the careers of emerging artists, a big showcase exhibition at their newly revamped space on Westbourne Grove will open on Wednesday the 2nd March.

This will be followed by a programme of events for the artists, including a series of seminars and talks from curators, critics, collectors and PR companies. Basically lots of very useful stuff....

I was selected for the show from 100s of applications, I am very excited to be taking part! the full list of artists has not been released yet, but I know that Twinkle Troughton also has some pieces in the show, and Chantal Powell too.

If you would like to come to the opening night please RSVP to rsvp@debutcontemporary.com

Tuesday, 8 February 2011

I have recently had all of my work photographed professionally by the very talented photographer Phil Whitby, he did a brilliant job! I'm really pleased with the results.

This is one of my recent pieces, inspired by a news image of The London Afghanistan conference last year. This is very much a sneak preview as most of my recent work has been under wraps in the last 6 months! Twinkle and I are planning a massive showcase exhibition for later on this year, and everything I have been working on will be unveiled then. We have yet to find the perfect venue, I will keep you posted.

The title of this painting is '9 Years and 89 days, ongoing. Civilian deaths 34,240, Military deaths 2,208'. I decided to paint this because the image intrigued me, the situation struck me as so far removed from the reality and horror of war and death; the group of politicians look like a sea of black suits, surrounded by ornate gold decoration and red flock patterned carpet. This piece is an exploration of the power of an image, simply by translating it into paint it makes a comment on the subject it tackles, but it suggests rather than explains, leaving more space for reflection.

I am also currently experimenting with the way I apply the paint to the canvas, here I have built up a series of glazes, and used thick paint to create rough marks, leaving faces to appear half finished and sketched in. I wanted to use a more expressive style of mark making to deal with a sensitive and emotive subject.